Illyrians

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Illyrians were a group of Indo-European tribes in antiquity, who inhabited part of the western Balkans. [1] The territory the Illyrians inhabited came to be known as Illyria to Greek and Roman authors, who identified a territory that corresponds to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, part of Serbia and most of central and northern Albania, between the Adriatic Sea in the west, the Drava river in the north, the Morava river in the east and the mouth of the Aoos river in the south.[2]

Variants of name

Illyrians in Greek mythology

In later Greek mythology,[3] Illyrius was the son of Cadmus and Harmonia who eventually ruled Illyria and became the eponymous ancestor of the whole Illyrian people.[4]

History

The first account of Illyrian peoples comes from the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, an ancient Greek text of the middle of the 4th century BC that describes coastal passages in the Mediterranean.[5]

The name "Illyrians", as applied by the ancient Greeks to their northern neighbors, may have referred to a broad, ill-defined group of peoples, and it is today unclear to what extent they were linguistically and culturally homogeneous. In fact, an Illyric origin was and still is attributed also to a few ancient peoples in Italy, in particular the Iapyges, Dauni and Messapi, as it is thought that, most likely, they had followed Adriatic shorelines to the peninsula, coming from the geographic "Illyria". The Illyrian tribes never collectively regarded themselves as 'Illyrians', and it is unlikely that they used any collective nomenclature for themselves.[6] In fact, the name Illyrians seems to be the name applied to a specific Illyrian tribe, which was the first to come in contact with the ancient Greeks during the Bronze Age,[7] causing the name Illyrians to be applied pars pro toto to all people of similar language and customs.[8]

The term "Illyrians" last appears in the historical record in the 7th century, referring to a Byzantine garrison operating within the former Roman province of Illyricum.[9]

The term Illyrioi may originally have designated only a single people who came to be widely known to the Greeks due to proximity.[10] This occurred during the Bronze Age, when Greek tribes were neighboring the southernmost Illyrian tribe of that time in the Zeta plain of Montenegro.[11] Indeed, such a people known as the Illyrioi have occupied a small and well-defined part of the south Adriatic coast, around Skadar Lake astride the modern frontier between Albania and Montenegro. The name may then have expanded and come to be applied to ethnically different peoples such as the Liburni, Delmatae, Iapodes, or the Pannonii. In any case, most modern scholars are certain the Illyrians were not a homogeneous entity.[12]

Pliny the Elder referred, in his Natural History, to "Illyrians proper" (Illyrii proprie dicti) as natives in the south of Roman Dalmatia. Appian's Illyrian Wars employed the more common broader usage, simply stating that Illyrians lived beyond Macedonia and Thrace, from Chaonia and Thesprotia to the Danube River.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Frazee 1997, p. 89: "The Balkan peninsula had three groups of Indo-Europeans prior to 2000 BC. Those on the west were the Illyrians; those on the east were the Thracians; and advancing down the southern part of the Balkans, the Greeks."
  2. ↑ Wilkes 1995, pp. 6, 92; Boardman & Hammond 1982, p. 261
  3. ↑ E.g. in the myth compendium Bibliotheca of PseudoApollodorus III.5.4, which is not earlier than the first century BC.
  4. ↑ Grimal & Maxwell-Hyslop 1996, p. 230; Apollodorus & Hard 1999, p. 103 (Book III, 5.4)
  5. ↑ Wilkes, J. J. (1995), The Illyrians, Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-631-19807-5, p.94
  6. ↑ Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (2010), A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 1-4051-7936-8, p.280
  7. ↑ Boardman, John (1982), The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume III, Part I: The Prehistory of the Balkans; the Middle East and the Aegean World, Tenth to Eighth Centuries B.C., Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-22496-9, p. 629.
  8. ↑ Wilkes, J. J. (1995), The Illyrians, Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-631-19807-5, p. 92.
  9. ↑ Schaefer, Richard T. (2008), Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, SAGE Publications, ISBN 1-4129-2694-7, p. 130.
  10. ↑ Wilkes, J. J. (1995), The Illyrians, Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-631-19807-5,pp. 81, 183.
  11. ↑ Boardman, John (1982), The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume III, Part I: The Prehistory of the Balkans; the Middle East and the Aegean World, Tenth to Eighth Centuries B.C., Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-22496-9, p. 629.
  12. ↑ Boardman, John (1982), The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume III, Part I: The Prehistory of the Balkans; the Middle East and the Aegean World, Tenth to Eighth Centuries B.C., Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-22496-9, p. 38
  13. ↑ Roman History: "The Illyrian Wars", livius.org
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